2016 South Central Rally Wrap Up

[Framer]

Well the South Central rally is over and everybody made it home safe. Enough said..... well probable not. So here's what happened.
My wife and I packed up Saturday night and headed out at day break Sunday morning. After 8 or so hours on the road we hit Salem and a friendly face.... Amin. The rest of the day was relaxing by the pool and eating dinner.
Day 2 and the rally was still 2 days off, we hit the road for the Fort Davidson ride ( or we thought). Somehow Dave's routes are always reversed in my gps, so yah we got a little lost. Well after pulling out my paper map and figuring out where we (l) went wrong we made it to Fort Davidson Battle field. After lunch and a short break from the heat we headed south for some more great roads. After 225 miles of twisty we made it back to our hotel and hit the pool. More people would be arriving like Budman and the Arkansas crew and Ross made it in from Arizona.
Day 3 and still 1 more day until the official start of the rally. Lyn and I went for a short ride to Montauk State Park. We needed to get back and grocery shop for the cookout. While others went for rides and some went to Onondaga Cave.
The meet and greet cookout was a big hit. After the fire got under control on a 100°+ heat index day. Heath cooked up some terrific hamburgers, hotdogs and hot links ( man I wish I would have got one of those hot links). We also had coleslaw, potato salad, chips and drinks. The rest of the night was your typical round chair discussion (bs).
Day 4 and the first day of the rally. With all the wavers and ice forms filled out it was time to ride. Big Springs Park was our destination via twisty highway 19. We made a pit stop at Eminence and then on to Big Springs Park. The stop at Big Springs was refreshing with 58° water flowing from the springs and over 276 million gallons flowing out everyday made the water cooled breeze very welcomed on this 90°+ day. Back on the bikes and into Van Buren for lunch at the Float Stream Restaurant. After lunch we headed back to the motel via state highway D. Highway D was a roller coaster ride, not something I needed right after lunch but hear I go chasing a lady named Katherine on a 650 Bergman. Now this isn't just any lady it's Wanders daughter and this lady can ride. I was glad to see highway 21 and let things settle down before we turned on another curvy road named highway 32 and then back to rally central and the pool.
Dinner plans were made with various groups and then back to our round chair discussion to end the night.
Day 5 and our typical day off found Lyn and I heading to a Can Am dealer in search of an antenna I broke off the first night we were there and then to Onondaga Cave. Some people road to Route 66 and others did various short rides but we ultimately ended up back at the pool (it was hot). That night a group of us enjoyed some good steaks at The Roadhouse Bar &Grill.
Day 6 we started the ride an hour earlier to try to beat the heat (haha). So at 8:00 we set out for Johnston's Shut-Ins State park. On the way we had quite the scare (any it scared me) when a deer came out and tried to give our ride leader Jim Grimshaw a kiss and then went between him and his wife. Wow that was a close call. Jim said he never saw the deer until its head was between his handle bars and his shoulder. Some how the deer got stopped and went right behind his bike. I was right behind Liz and saw how close it came to both of them. Onto the Shut-Ins which is basically a natural water park where over eons the water has worn the rocks smooth. When I found out it was a quarter mile walk in boots to see this park and it was already in the 90s I was out but some ventured down and at least one (Amin) took a swim. We left there and went to Elephant Rock. It's just a bunch of big rocks. We did have our first and only accident there. John Repp slipped on rock and injured his right knee and right arm. Then we headed to lunch and a cool down at Fort Davidson Restaurant. After lunch we all wanted the fastest way back ( again it was hot) but with twisty road no way back would be very fast. When we got back once again it was pool time and cooling down before our final dinner.
Our final dinner was at the Red Barn BBQ where we had a choice of all you can eat fish or ribs, beef brisket and pulled pork. Then we headed back to the motel for the raffle. Thanks to ROK and our members the raffle was a big success. We did our usual round chair discussion and said our goodbyes and off to bed for and early start home in the morning.
This rally was a huge success thanks to all the members that attended.
In all there were 30 members on 24 bikes
26 attended the final dinner and raffle
While most of us went home some headed north to the North Central Rally